


A Monster

by MaladaptiveDaydreamer



Category: SU - Fandom, SU Future, Steven Universe (Cartoon), steven universe future - Fandom, suf - Fandom
Genre: Angst, Connie is a good friend, Corruption, Gem Shattering, Gen, Self-Hatred, Transformation, jasper gets shattered
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-19
Updated: 2020-04-19
Packaged: 2021-03-01 19:54:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,912
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23742619
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MaladaptiveDaydreamer/pseuds/MaladaptiveDaydreamer
Summary: Basically, this fic is an alternate timeline where Steven transforms into wormy boi right after he shatters Jasper.
Relationships: Connie Maheswaran & Steven Universe, Crystal Gems & Connie Maheswaran, Crystal Gems & Steven Universe
Comments: 3
Kudos: 34





	A Monster

Steven laughed maniacally as he floated hundreds of feet above his defeated opponent. Jasper was right; fighting was a good way to let off some steam! He should have taken her advice sooner.

The glowing pink gem hybrid grinned as he floated back down to the ground, feeling gleeful for the first time in weeks--no, months. Finally, he had someone to vent to. Someone who at least partially understood what he was going through. Someone he could actually talk to without fear of being judged.

He kissed his biceps again to spite Jasper who he assumed was watching him.

However, as he boasted about his victory, he noticed Jasper hadn’t gotten up yet, which was strange. Normally she got back up immediately and growled out of embarrassment of being knocked down. Maybe he may have gone too far.

He shook his glowing pink head and chuckled to himself as he casually strolled to where he last saw the big brute of a gem. No way. Jasper could take any hit that was thrown at her. Surely his little spikes didn’t hurt her that bad. 

But as he kept walking, an uneasy feeling began to grow in his stomach. His cocky smirk began to fade.

Calm down, he silently scolded himself. She’s probably fine. The gem’s probably just trying to play a mean prank on him.

However, upon arriving at the huge crater he created, he found that he couldn’t be more wrong. 

Lying near the center of the gigantic crater where Jasper should have been were 5 pocket-sized orange and yellow fragments that lay scattered in the dirt.

“No!”

Tears swelled in his glowing pink eyes as he sprinted toward the scene of the accident. He quickly collected every fragment and checked for other possible missing pieces. Finding none, he immediately held the fragments under his eyes in attempt to heal them with his tears.

“Come on, Jasper, please come back! I’m sorry!”

Still sobbing, he waited for a flash of bright orange light to appear and grow into a large gem. Unfortunately, to his horror, nothing happened. He repeated the process again.

And again.

And again.

And again.

“Come on, work! Please! Just for once let me do something right!” He was sobbing so hard he could barely speak, his voice quivering with every word he spoke. 

He tried to find something to hold the pieces together, but it was no use. Everything that was near him was either destroyed or not useful to him. He dropped the fragments of his former friend(enemy) and slammed his fists into the earth, accidentally letting out a burst of pink energy and creating an even deeper crater. What had he done? What had he become?

As he continued weeping, the sky above him grew dark. The wind began to pick up speed as thunder began to clap. Rain began to pour. 

Steven screamed with frustration. What was wrong with him? Why was he like this? Why did he hurt everyone he loved? He kept screaming as these thoughts popped into his fragile mind. He couldn’t take it anymore. Everything was too much. He was too much. He started swelling up again.

Oh, if only Jasper had taken him seriously about his concerns about his powers. About how dangerous he was becoming. About his lack of control. 

All of a sudden, Steven yelped as he felt a sharp pain on his back. Overcome with both grief and pain, he collapsed face-first on the ground. He shivered as he gripped his head, trying, and failing to get a hold of himself. 

“I deserve this,” he thought miserably to himself as various parts of his body began swelling. “I deserve to suffer.” As if he wasn’t hurting enough, a spike suddenly burst out of his already swelling back.

Barely even noticing, he sobbed even more. “I’m a horrible person.”

Another spike shot out of his back.

He thought of how he proposed to Connie.“A terrible friend.”

Another spike.

He thought of how he spoke to his dad.“An awful son.”

Another spike.

He sobbed in silence for a few minutes before speaking again.

“A monster!”

Everything suddenly went pink.

~~~~~

“Have you tried calling him?”

“Of course I have, Amethyst! 135 times to be exact and not once has he answered me!” an exasperated Pearl nearly shouted. She was so worried that her hands were shaking. 

Garnet was staring at the storm outside, her expression unreadable. “He’s become so unpredictable that he’s even evading my future vision.” Her hands were intertwining with one another, almost in a fidgety way. 

Amethyst was pacing in front of the door, running her fingers through her thick, fluffy hair. “Man, I’m so worried. He’s never disappeared without telling us before! Wait,” she thought about that statement for a moment. “Actually, never mind; he’s done this multiple times.”

Pearl kept trying to call Steven, her fingers frantically dialing the buttons. “But not for this long! Ugh!” She growled in frustration when her call went to voicemail. She started to tear up.

“Aww, Pearl, don’t cry.” Amethyst went over to her and held her thin, trembling hands. “He’ll come back! He always does!” 

This caused the opposite effect. Pearl was now full-on sobbing, tightly embracing Amethyst as she tried to speak. “I-i-i just l-love hi-him so m-much!”

Garnet handed her a tissue. 

Then came a knock.

Pearl almost tripped over Amethyst as she made her way to the door. “Steven?!!?” She slammed the door open so hard the hinge almost broke.

“Hi, Pearl. Is Steven home?” Steven’s best friend asked.

Pearl almost broke into tears again. 

Connie looked at her, very concerned. “Pearl? What’s wrong? Is St-?” Before she could finish speaking, the ground shook as a sound that can only be described as an eruption pierced through the air. “Whoa-” the teenager fell forward onto the teary-eyed gem, who immediately caught her.

A minute later, everything stopped. 

“What WAS that?” a very confused Amethyst wondered aloud.

Garnet, still looking through the window, pointed to a giant pink creature in the distance. “That, most likely.”

Everyone gathered around Garnet to see what she was pointing to. All of their jaws dropped in unison. 

“Holy SH-”

“Is that a corrupted gem?”

“Come on gems, let’s go!” Garnet summoned her gauntlets as Pearl and Amethyst summoned their own weapons.

Connie spoke up. “Wait, shouldn’t I come too? I can help-”

Garnet stopped her. “No. That thing is huge. I don’t think a sword will be able to do much in a fight against it.” Pearl and Amethyst nodded in agreement.

“But your gauntlets, Amethyst’s whip, and Pearl’s spear will?” Connie countered.

Garnet paused for a moment. Then she spoke. “Connie, we’re gems. We can handle getting hurt. But you, you’re human. If that creature were to step on you or hurt you in any way, you would-” She couldn’t finish the sentence. She took off her shades to reveal her three eyes. “We just can’t take that chance.” 

Connie still wasn’t having it. “But what if Steven is out there? Do you really expect me to just stand idly by while my best friend is in danger?” 

Garnet paused again. She didn’t speak for a few minutes. Then she sighed. “Alright. But you need to bring Lion with you. Also, don’t get too close. We don’t know what this thing is capable of.”

Connie nodded. “Of course.” She called Lion to her and hopped on his back, ready for action. 

“Alright then. Everyone, let’s go!” Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl hopped on Lion behind Connie before warping to the forest.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Steven didn’t know what was happening.

One second he was lying on the ground sobbing, and now he was here in a dark empty room, chained to the ground. He could hear the faint sound of something, but he couldn’t tell what it was. A car engine, maybe?

No, this was much louder than that. 

He groaned as he tried to stand up, but the chains immediately slammed him to the ground. Where was he? What was happening?

All of a sudden, two huge circles appeared in front of him. For some reason, they showed Beach City, but from a giant’s perspective. He squinted, trying to make sense of his surroundings.

Then he realized something. This room, for some reason, seemed familiar. He was getting an odd sense of deja vu, which was weird since Steven was certain that he had never been in this room before. 

Then it hit him. This room looked almost exactly like the room in Malachite’s head, but dark pink instead of seafoam green. 

“Wha-? How? W-” Steven spluttered confusedly. The last time he checked, he wasn’t a fusion! Well, not in the normal sense, anyway. He looked at the circles, which were now showing an aerial view of the nearby forest. He also noticed a giant pair of claws 

Steven was suddenly hit with a wave of dread.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“WHOA MAMA!” 

Amethyst gaped at the giant pink horned beast before her, which was now on all fours chewing on trees like they were broccoli. She also noticed it was wagging its tail like a puppy. “Awwww. It’s like a giant dog!”

The giant beast stopped what it was doing and looked around, trying to locate the source of the noise. It sniffed the air and growled.

“Amethyst, be quiet. We don’t want to provoke the corrupted gem.” Pearl hissed while eyeing the creature. 

Amethyst pouted. “Aww, come on, I was just-” she stopped when she saw Garnet’s expression.

The stoic gem spoke. “Everybody, listen. Here’s the plan: since this gem monster is so huge, we can’t risk it heading to Beach City, so we need to lure it away. Amethyst, you can distract it by shapeshifting into a helicopter and have it chase you. Meanwhile, Pearl and I will sneak onto the beast to see if it has a weak spot. And Connie,” she turned to face the teenager, who was eagerly listening to every word, “see if you can find Steven.” 

She nodded as she hopped back on Lion, who took off immediately. 

“Steven? Are you here? STEVEN?” She shouted once she was sure she was far enough from the beast. Where was he? It wasn’t like him to just wander off and not tell anyone where he was or what he was doing. Ever since he had proposed, he had seemed, well, off. 

After what seemed like an hour, she sighed, pretty sure she’d seen that same spot before. “Okay, Lion, maybe we should-” As if he had suddenly smelt a delicious steak, Lion started sprinting forward. 

“Okay, I guess we’re doing this now!” She held on for dear life as Lion dashed straight ahead towards an unseeable target. 

Suddenly, Lion came to a screeching halt, almost throwing the poor teen off of him. 

“Lion! What was that f-” She stopped scolding when she saw that they were in a huge crater. She sighed. “Yep, Steven was definitely here-” She froze. Lying directly in front of her were tattered remains of what she deduced to be Steven’s clothes.

“Oh no…” She walked over and picked up the remnants of Steven’s shirt. 

Curious, Lion walked behind her and sniffed the shirt. He pawed at one piece until it ended up sticking to one of his claws. 

Connie’s eyes widened. Under that cloth lay what appeared to be fragments of-no, it couldn’t be. Upon closer inspection, however, Connie could no longer deny it: those were Jasper’s remains. “Jasper? What happened to you?” She felt a little dumb talking to the equivalent of a dead body, but she didn’t know what else to do--that is, until she looked around her and connected the dots. “Oh, Steven.”  
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Amethyst was flying faster than she ever had before, which was saying a lot since she once turned into a rocket to scare Pearl once. She was sweating as she barely managed to dodge a large claw that attempted to grab her. “Uh, guys, can we hurry up and poof this thing, already? I’m getting kinda tired!” Her helicopter form was starting to shrink.

Pearl was clinging onto one of the monster’s giant horns that adorned its head. Meanwhile, Garnet was on its back, still searching for a weakness. “Hold on, Amethyst! We’re almost far enough away from the city!” Garnet instructed as she poked one of the beast’s massive spikes, trying to get a reaction. 

The monster, still entranced by the magical violet helicopter flying before it, didn’t even flinch. It just continued stomping towards Amethyst, trying to catch her. Frustrated by its last failed attempt, it roared.

Caught off guard, Amethyst forcibly transformed back into her normal form and fell about a hundred feet. Weakly, she managed to summon her whip and wrap it around one of the beast’s tusks, propelling her under the creature’s gigantic stomach. She groaned as she landed on her back with a hard thud. “Sheesh, this is one heck of a corrupted gem!” She brushed dirt off of her shorts as she stood back up. “I mean, what-” she froze as she saw a bright flash of reflected light directly above her. 

“No way.”

Directly above her on the giant’s stomach lay a bright pink quartz-like gem. In the middle of it, Amethyst made out a familiar pentagonal shape. Her eyes widened in horror.

“STEVEN?!?!”

Hearing her shriek, the Godzilla-esque creature suddenly stopped in its tracks. It sniffed the ground, confused as it slid to a complete stop. 

Pearl and Garnet immediately leaped off the monster and rushed to Amethyst. 

“Amethyst, are you okay? I heard you shriek and-” She stopped when Amethyst pointed up, mouth gaping open. “Amethyst, please, what have I told you about-” 

“Pearl, look.” Garnet was staring hardly where Amethyst was pointing.

Pearl sighed exasperatedly before glancing upwards. Then she gasped. “W-W-WHAT?!??!”

“Shhh! Keep it down!”  
Too late. The monster finally realized where the voices were coming from and stood up on its hind legs, casting a large shadow over the gems. Strangely, its facial expression appeared to be more confused than angry.

“Rah rah?” The monster grumbled unintelligibly.

The gems took a few steps back. “It can’t be. Steven?” Pearl placed her hand over her mouth in shock. 

The monster just blinked at them and tilted its head as though it were confused by her words. 

Suddenly, a swirling pink portal appeared in front of the gems. “Guys, I think the creature is Steven!” The teenager shouted the second she and Lion hopped out of the portal. Her left fist was clenched as though it were holding something. 

Amethyst crossed her arms. “Uh, yeah, dude. We literally just figured that out.”

Connie sighed. “Of course you did.” She turned and looked up at what used to be her best friend. Her expression grew determined. “Here, hold this.” She tossed a few orange bits at Amethyst, who was very confused as she caught them.

“Uh, what are these?”

“Jasper,” Connie replied nonchalantly before hopping into another portal and not hearing the gems’ screams of horror.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Steven was struggling to break the chains, but it was no use; they wouldn’t budge. He groaned. Just perfect. Now he would be forced to watch as he hurt his family and there was nothing he could do about it. Tears of frustration began to form in his tired eyes. If only he had asked for help sooner. Then maybe he wouldn’t be a giant pink lizard monster rampaging through the outskirts of Beach City. 

He started to sob when all of a sudden, a familiar face popped into what he assumed were his giant eyes. 

“Connie?” Steven wiped away his tears. He watched as his friend trodded across his oversized nose. 

“Steven.” She pressed her forehead against what he assumed was the equivalent of his. “You must have been so afraid to show us this side of yourself,” a single tear rolled down her cheek. “But we’re not going anywhere. We’re all gonna take care of you the same way you take care of us.” She paused for a moment before speaking again. “You know what? I don’t have your powers, but--” she leaned in and gently kissed his scaly face.

Steven was sobbing uncontrollably. He understood everything now. 

Then everything went pink.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Steven could hear the faint noise of birds chirping. He felt some sort of fuzzy cloth being wrapped around him. Something cozy and warm. When he opened his eyes, he found himself lying on Garnet’s lap, wrapped in a giant blue blanket similar to the one his dad had. 

Amethyst, Pearl, and Connie were all sitting in a circle around him, gazing at him fondly. However, Steven could still see the concern in their eyes. 

He thought about everything he’d done and what he had almost just done. “What, I-” he stuttered, tearing up. “Did I-” his throat was closing up. 

Out of the blue, Lion rushed over and licked Steven’s tears, trying to comfort him in his own feline way. 

Steven would have laughed if he hadn’t felt so drained. He immediately embraced his lion and let out everything he had been feeling for the past 16 years. Tears streamed down his face, soaking Lion’s soft fur as he sobbed, who didn’t seem to mind. 

For the first time in a very long time, he felt that everything was going to be okay. More importantly, though, he was going to be okay.


End file.
